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The 'climategate' scientists weren't here

One durable truth: "Liars can figure and figures can lie." And so it is that we have to try and figure out all that comes to us about climate change.

Beside figures, there is another category of truth that is relevant, and that is the truth of physics; and very simple physics at that. We are all (even grade-schoolers) perfectly comfortable with the realities of evaporation and condensation. We battle or benefit from the greenhouse effect on every sunny day. There is no question that carbon dioxide is released in every combustion event.

People are generally aware that a carbon dioxide molecule is so profoundly stuck together that it will stay together and do its work for 100 years. We can consider some geologic principles and comprehend that we are currently un-sequestering the carbon of geologic time in a geologic instant.

These are the truths that convince me of climate change and human ability to cause it. Never mind that glaciers, coral reefs, beetle infestations, monster storms, my own rising homeowner's insurance costs and so forth and so on are screaming climate change.

And then, I wonder where on earth the "climategate" scientists were in 2012 when they found that the atmosphere was cooler? Not in my garden anyway! I think I'll stick to a NASA scientist.